The Greeks and Greek CivilizationJacob Burckhardt (1818-1897) is perhaps the preeminent historian of classical and Renaissance art, architecture, and culture. Burckhardt completed significant " cultural history," which he only described in his famous Reflections on History and in a celebrated series of lectures delivered in Basel in 1872. Burckhardt dramatically renounced these speeches during his own lifetime, fearing a hostile reception by a world body of scholars and critics who remained wedded to a romanticized view of the ancient Greek world. It is only now, for the first time, that the core of these lectures is available in book form to the English-language reader. Rejecting the notion that a perfect democracy had in fact existed, Burckhardt portrayed ancient Greek culture as an aristocratic world based on ruthless competition for honor, which led, in turn, to a tyrannous state with minimal freedoms. |
Contents
The Greeks and their Mythology | 13 |
The Polis | 37 |
General Characteristics of Greek Life | 63 |
Introductory Remarks | 127 |
The Heroic Age | 135 |
The Agonal Age | 160 |
The Fifth Century | 214 |
Ancient History | 364 |
CORRESPONDING PAGE NUMBERS OF THE GERMAN | 429 |
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Common terms and phrases
Achilles Aelian agon agora Alcibiades ancient antiquity Apollo Aristophanes Aristotle Athenaeus Athenians Athens Attic attitude barbarians battle beauty became Burckhardt chariot citizens comedy cult culture death Delphi Demosthenes diadochoi Diodorus Diogenes Laertius Dionysius divine Euripides existence expression fact fame famous father festivals fifth century fourth century frag gifts gives gods Gorgias Greece Greek gymnastic Hellenic Heracles Herodotus heroes heroic Hesiod hetaerae Homer honour human ibid ideal Iliad important individual instance Isocrates kind King later lectures legend live Lysias modern Moralia myth mythical names nation Nauck Nietzsche Odysseus Olympia orators Pausanias Peloponnesian perhaps Pericles period Persian person Philip philosophers Phocion Pindar Plato Plutarch poet poetry poleis polis political praise Roman says seems slaves Socrates Solon Sophocles Spartan speech statue story Strabo sycophants symposium Thebes Theseus things Thucydides tragedy true Varia Historia victory whole women Xenophon Zeus